The primary mission of the police is to protect life and property by reducing crime. By passing Proposition 19 this November, voters can help themselves and the police by instantly preventing between 40 million and 208 million crimes a year in California. In comparison to marijuana crimes, the number of murders, robberies, rapes, burglaries, and aggravated assaults total fewer than half a million combined.

Voters can achieve these massive crime reductions without any costly new programs. By passing an act to control, regulate and tax marijuana, the election will actually significantly reduce police and criminal justice spending. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, Proposition 19 will also increase tax revenues by $1.2 billion by taxing marijuana, which currently escapes taxation because it is illegal.

Marijuana crimes are only recorded when the police make an arrest or seizure, and marijuana use can only be estimated by research.

Estimates by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that between one-tenth and one-third of the population in California uses marijuana; a staggering ballpark figure of between 3.8 million and 12.5 million people. The estimates may be low because marijuana use is consensual, unlike murder, robbery, rape, burglary, stalking and assault, where victims or witnesses alert the police. Using an estimate of 4 million marijuana users — on the extremely low end of the scale — if the individuals used marijuana only twice a week, it could amount to as many as 208 million marijuana crimes per year.

It is a no-brainer to greatly reduce crime, save police resources and produce new revenue by taxing marijuana, all by a single “yes” vote on Proposition 19. The $19 billion state budget deficit means that police will have to cut services. People are not terrified by the thought of pot smokers in their neighborhood, but voters who are justifiably concerned that violent criminals threaten their safety, as well as that of their children and families, will vote for Proposition 19.

Opponents of Proposition 19 change the subject instead of focusing on facts. One leading politician said, “We have to compete with the Chinese; we can’t do that if we’re stoned.” California’s robust wine industry is a social and economic blessing. Wine has not led to a state full of drunks unable to compete with China’s economy.

Similarly, arguments that passing Proposition 19 means that more will drive under its influence are false. The proposition expressly forbids it, and relieving the police of other marijuana enforcement will allow them to focus more on intoxicated drivers.

Furthermore, government-funded research proves that marijuana is not the “gateway” drug leading to addiction. If there is a “gateway” it is beer, or busting young people for minor offenses and putting them into a criminal justice system with a 77 percent recidivism rate.

No rational person believes we are winning the war against marijuana, or can win it. The ensuing violence is not because people are under the influence of the drug. Drug cartels and criminal gangs derive 60 percent of their funding from the enormous profits resulting from criminal prohibition. Growing numbers of innocent people are hurt or killed in the black-market trade.

Alcohol and tobacco are far more dangerous drugs than cannabis, but no one is being killed in an alcohol or cigarette black market because those drugs are legal, regulated and taxed.

Continuing to do more of what has not worked for a century will enrich marijuana drug producers and criminals. But a “yes” vote on Proposition 19 will make all of us safer.

JOSEPH D. McNAMARA, retired police chief of San Jose, is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He wrote this article for this newspaper.

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